Fainting

Chapter 17 - Allison

"Hey, Mom," I call, closing the front door behind me.

"Hi, Lee. Thanks for coming," Mom calls as she walks into the front room holding a rag.

Pretty much everybody I've met has a different nickname for me. "Of course. Is Dad not back yet?" He left a couple of days ago to Tennessee because his cousin broke a hip and doesn't have anybody to take care of her yet – her sister's en route to help.

"He said probably Sunday. Is your sister coming? Or brother?"

"No," I respond, going to get cleaning supplies. "She's got a big test she's studying for and Jason's doing homework." I don't tell her what Jordyn suspects; he's doing that's for him to tell, not Jordie or myself.

"Annabella? She's back, right?" Annabella's been in our house more often than not growing up. Usually she calls my mother Mom, too, and I call hers Mama.

"I didn't ask her." I guess Jordyn's the one who called Laela for help, not Mom.

Mom nods. "Okay. Well, let's get started."

As she walks away, I call her back for a second. "Mom, we need music. What kind do you want?"
"Energetic; songs we can dance to. Duh."

I smile. "Coming right up." I put on a playlist of country music, cause it's energetic. Don't listen to Mark. He's wrong.

As the first song comes on, I start cleaning the kitchen.

A few hours later, we're finally done. It took forever because the majority of those three hours were spent dancing and using anything and everything as a microphone.

We collapse on the couch and sigh. Glancing at each other, we start laughing deliriously. We are exhausted.

"Want to watch a movie?" Mom asks.
I stand up. "I'll get the popcorn."
"Just don't make a mess. We just cleaned this room," Mom says as she turns on the TV.

"I won't."

I wake up just after eight the next morning. For a moment, I don't believe it's eight, but then as I wake up more, I realize it is. Shoot. Not again. I hate sleeping this late, both because I like my day and because with POTS I need – doctor's orders – to eat three meals a day, on time, and eight – so I've found – is a little late to eat breakfast. I'll get shaky and dizzy and have other problems.

By eight-thirty, I'm sitting down at the table with my omlette and my salt pills – salt makes your blood pressure go up, which is something I need.

Checking my messages on my phone, I see that Mark has tried to call me a couple of times this morning. It's sort of funny; I thought he didn't like to get up until nine. I call him back, only to get his voicemail. Maybe he went back to sleep. Jordyn also texted; apparently her upcoming test isn't so big because she managed to spy on Jason. Sure enough, he has a girlfriend. I look at the picture she sent me and do a double take. I call Jordyn right away.

"Joe, that's the girl from the sky-diving place."
She gasps. "No way. I thought she looked familiar but couldn't place it. I didn't think he went often enough to get a girl."

"He didn't have to go that often. Just when she was on duty."
"We should take him skydiving and see for ourselves. Or just go without him."
"If we go without him, we won't be able to see any chemistry because he won't be there."
"Oh yeah." However much Jordyn's setting me up with random boys annoys me, we can team up against Jason with his girls.

"I'm free this weekend."

"Me too. Well, I do have a test on Monday, but we can forget about that. I'll find time to study."

"That's the spirit."

We decide to go tomorrow; Jordyn gets the job of calling Jason to invite him. If I call him, he's going to suspect something, especially after our very brief conversation yesterday. Joe's hoping he'll invite me, cause then I can prove him wrong – I will, in fact, accept his next invitation to go skydiving. Even though I'm still terrified.

The next morning is bright and sunny with just a bit of wind. Perfect for jumping out of a plane.

At Monterey Bay Skydive, Jason shakes his head in bewilderment as I climb out of my van.

"I didn't actually think you'd come."
I smirk. "Surprise."

He rolls his eyes and pulls me in to where Jordyn's started filling out forms.

Jason did call me yesterday to invite me and almost choked when I said yes. He clearly doesn't have any faith in me; for that he's grounded.

Ok, that doesn't work because he's jumping out of a plane soon, which is not grounded. It is, in fact, skyed. But he's... punished.

My geek of a brother brought his bright pink suit that he bought a year or so ago. Jordyn and I are kind of embarrassed, but we don't let him know that. Instead, we ignore it as we pick out our own colors. My sister gets blue and I end up with red. I know, red and pink clash, but I don't particularly care. I'm getting more and more nervous about this whole jumping-out-of-a-plane thing. I prefer the ground, like skiing or golf. Then I have control.

An hour later I'm back safely on the ground with my two feet pressed firmly down. It wasn't so bad; it was pretty fun, to be honest, but terrifying.

Jason's girlfriend was the girl who took our forms – waivers – and made sure we had a suit that fit and were strapped up properly. She's pretty, Jordie and I give her that. And friendly, but that might just be because this is her job and she has to be nice.

Sigh. Jordyn must be getting to me; I usually give people the benefit of the doubt. My sister will, most of the time, but she'll voice the doubt.

Jason clearly has a thing for her. He hung out by the desk and made any excuse to walk by her. Because Jordyn and I don't yet know how to confront him, we're not going to. Yet.